So, I read it

That Salon article I mentioned before. http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs/index.html

A few thoughts, in no particular order:

It irks me that people keep citing that statistic that Utahns get more prescription anti-depressants to prove Mormons are all depressed and therefore hate their lives, or worse, that Mormon WOMEN are oppressed (because men never get depressed, right?). Here's the thing: Utah might prescribe more anti-depressants than anyone else. But it might not be the Mormons in Utah who are taking them. Maybe nonMormons in Utah get really depressed! Or it might be that because Mormons don't use alcohol or Marijuana to self-medicate for depression, we have to get the doctor-supervised kind of help. What's wrong with that?

Saddest idea EVER:

"And if they help women like me envision a life in which marriage and motherhood could potentially be something other than a miserable, soul-destroying trap, I say, "Right on.""

Who came up with the idea that marriage and motherhood are a miserable, soul-destroying trap? That's a horrible thing for our culture to believe. It's a thoroughly culture-destroying belief. Also, it condemns a whole generation of women to single, isolated, loneliness. And, dare I say this? It makes all these bright, educated women no better than prostitutes--living life alone and as sex objects when men "need" them rather than as equal partners, valued and adored and supported in pursuing their dreams (which is what marriage is supposed to be, and is for a lot of us), which is the exact opposite of what the feminists thought they were doing when they decided marriage and family are evil.

Why do I never self-identify as a feminist, even though I am totally in favor of so many things feminists fight for? Because the feminists were responsible for the greatest harm ever done to women: stealing from them the right and freedom to embrace and value the things that are unique to women: the roles of wife and mother, the ability to enjoy being pretty separate from being a sex object, the chance to embrace the experience of being all woman (by which I mean nurturing, creative, service-oriented, relationship-bound, emotional, busy...and yes, sometimes hormonal and sometimes pregnant). They've stolen everything valuable and left us, in the name of empowerment, with bitchiness and anything we can copy from men. In the name of freedom and equality, women have been forced to pretend they are men, and they can't do it any way except poorly because, let's face it--We aren't men. Why isn't that okay?

And, quite frankly, men aren't in any better position nowadays. They aren't even allowed to pretend they want to be married and faithful (because men can't--that's what they tell us--men can't be faithful because it's not in their nature), or even suggest they want to have children and to love and nurture and play with them (because any male who loves children is a pedophile, apparently). 

In trying to root evil out of our society (and there was evil, don't get me wrong--the feminists were fighting real problems, and still are), they also rooted out the good. Unable (or unwilling) to take the time to discover what healthy and what cancerous tissues look like, they excised the cancers of society by cutting out the heart. 

Now, even if people somehow managed to turn back to the natural way of living, they wouldn't know how to do it--how to be parents, how to be spouses. The traditional knowledge, lost, suddenly becomes more valuable than ever. And impossible to reclaim.

So sad.